Friday, April 3, 2009
Note: Wifey posting
So we have finally gotten back from our 3 day 2 night scuba diving trip on the Great Barrier Reef and we have so much to update on. Why don't we start with our last day in Brisbane first. Well the wifey (me) burnt her hair trying to use her chi flatiron with a cheap converter (should have listened to the advice given) and her eyebrows were almost taken off along with some of her hair after a disaster trip to a nail salon. Long story short is that we went to a salon that waxes eyebrows and the lady had no clue what she was doing. She even apologized and asked the wifey to not say anything because she would get in trouble. No luck there because the manager was called anyways. The lady wounded up spilling wax on her hair and almost burning her eyebrows. After 45 minutes the wifey came out with her eyebrows still in tact but almost burnt off. Needless to say we weren't charged for the fiasco.
Then, on our first night in Cairns...we stood at another hostel. We were thinking back to our first hostel in Brisbane and thought ..." OMG that was like a suite compared to this." First, we were put in a room with 2 other men and of course the hubby wasn't having that so we switched to a private room which was not that much better. Thank God we didn't spot the cockroaches until we left. We booked a hotel the same night for when we returned from the diving trip. We are not getting used to being backpackers that's for sure.
Off to the good news....our diving trip. Conditions couldn't have been better. The sky was clear and the water looked like a giant swimming pool. The boat was a little smaller than expected but we could care less because we were diving the GREAT BARRIER REEF BABY!!! The first day on the boat proved successful. 4 dives later and meeting tons of interesting people we were pinching ourselves again thinking..."is this really happening." Our room had a window overlooking the Great Barrier Reef and the sunsets proved immaculate. Our second day was just as exciting as the first. We dove with sea turtles, reef sharks, gray tip sharks, barracudas, coral reef, giant red snapper, and tons more we couldn't even begin to write down because we would be here forever. We also completed our first night dive which was a bit nerve-wrecking because visibility was not good a night. Needless to say we attached to the hip during the entire night dive. We skipped on the second night dive after we saw a huge shark circling the boat which everyone was feeding their scraps too. Did we mention the great crew and interesting people we met. We met 2 fun guys that we hung out with most of the trip..one looking like Stiffler from American Pie, we met a camera person from LA who had done some work on the hit series House, we met a macroeconomist from Belgium who told us the economy is somewhat good and somewhat bad (could've figured that out, really nice guy though), someone from Switzerland, a Dutch guy, and a cool girl from Russia who was traveling solo, and plenty of Australians of course. On the last day of our diving trip we rested a little and enjoyed our last dive and one snorkeling trip that was just as exciting because the coral reef was literally a foot from the surface. We left the boat feeling accomplished and amazed. That night (yesterday) we met up with the boat crew and the people we had spent the last days on the boat with at a cool restaurant on the beach side. After drinking some good Australian beer we headed to our hotel for a good night sleep.
Like our last post we have learned some interesting things that we would like to share with everyone. Here are some Australian to American translations:
1. Telly= Television
2. Aircon= Air conditioner with the "con" sounding like con from the word con-artist.
3. Holiday= Vacation (Everyone is asking us if we are on a holiday and were like no..figured it out pretty quick though).
4. Cheers= thank you and you welcome.
5. Lifts= Elevators
Also, at most of the restaurants here you get a number and pick up your food yourself. There are waitresses that just pick up your dirty plates but they don't serve you. The nice restaurant we went to last night had us going to the bar for our drinks and going to another counter for our food.
Well, we are off to Japan tomorrow. We are trying to learn some Japanese before we go. Wish us luck.
60 second Japanese lesson for you:
1. Nani= What?
2. Doko= where?
3. Ikura= How much?
4. Wakarimasen= I don't understand
5. Arigatou= Thank you
6. Tasukete= Help
7. Eigo ga wakarimasu ka= Do you understand English?
8. Eki was doko desu ka= Where is the train station?
9. Bai Bai- Bye Bye
10. Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu= Nice to meet you
P.S. Thank you to everyone for your well wishes. As you can see we are safe and enjoying our trip to the fullest.
So we have finally gotten back from our 3 day 2 night scuba diving trip on the Great Barrier Reef and we have so much to update on. Why don't we start with our last day in Brisbane first. Well the wifey (me) burnt her hair trying to use her chi flatiron with a cheap converter (should have listened to the advice given) and her eyebrows were almost taken off along with some of her hair after a disaster trip to a nail salon. Long story short is that we went to a salon that waxes eyebrows and the lady had no clue what she was doing. She even apologized and asked the wifey to not say anything because she would get in trouble. No luck there because the manager was called anyways. The lady wounded up spilling wax on her hair and almost burning her eyebrows. After 45 minutes the wifey came out with her eyebrows still in tact but almost burnt off. Needless to say we weren't charged for the fiasco.
Then, on our first night in Cairns...we stood at another hostel. We were thinking back to our first hostel in Brisbane and thought ..." OMG that was like a suite compared to this." First, we were put in a room with 2 other men and of course the hubby wasn't having that so we switched to a private room which was not that much better. Thank God we didn't spot the cockroaches until we left. We booked a hotel the same night for when we returned from the diving trip. We are not getting used to being backpackers that's for sure.
Off to the good news....our diving trip. Conditions couldn't have been better. The sky was clear and the water looked like a giant swimming pool. The boat was a little smaller than expected but we could care less because we were diving the GREAT BARRIER REEF BABY!!! The first day on the boat proved successful. 4 dives later and meeting tons of interesting people we were pinching ourselves again thinking..."is this really happening." Our room had a window overlooking the Great Barrier Reef and the sunsets proved immaculate. Our second day was just as exciting as the first. We dove with sea turtles, reef sharks, gray tip sharks, barracudas, coral reef, giant red snapper, and tons more we couldn't even begin to write down because we would be here forever. We also completed our first night dive which was a bit nerve-wrecking because visibility was not good a night. Needless to say we attached to the hip during the entire night dive. We skipped on the second night dive after we saw a huge shark circling the boat which everyone was feeding their scraps too. Did we mention the great crew and interesting people we met. We met 2 fun guys that we hung out with most of the trip..one looking like Stiffler from American Pie, we met a camera person from LA who had done some work on the hit series House, we met a macroeconomist from Belgium who told us the economy is somewhat good and somewhat bad (could've figured that out, really nice guy though), someone from Switzerland, a Dutch guy, and a cool girl from Russia who was traveling solo, and plenty of Australians of course. On the last day of our diving trip we rested a little and enjoyed our last dive and one snorkeling trip that was just as exciting because the coral reef was literally a foot from the surface. We left the boat feeling accomplished and amazed. That night (yesterday) we met up with the boat crew and the people we had spent the last days on the boat with at a cool restaurant on the beach side. After drinking some good Australian beer we headed to our hotel for a good night sleep.
Like our last post we have learned some interesting things that we would like to share with everyone. Here are some Australian to American translations:
1. Telly= Television
2. Aircon= Air conditioner with the "con" sounding like con from the word con-artist.
3. Holiday= Vacation (Everyone is asking us if we are on a holiday and were like no..figured it out pretty quick though).
4. Cheers= thank you and you welcome.
5. Lifts= Elevators
Also, at most of the restaurants here you get a number and pick up your food yourself. There are waitresses that just pick up your dirty plates but they don't serve you. The nice restaurant we went to last night had us going to the bar for our drinks and going to another counter for our food.
Well, we are off to Japan tomorrow. We are trying to learn some Japanese before we go. Wish us luck.
60 second Japanese lesson for you:
1. Nani= What?
2. Doko= where?
3. Ikura= How much?
4. Wakarimasen= I don't understand
5. Arigatou= Thank you
6. Tasukete= Help
7. Eigo ga wakarimasu ka= Do you understand English?
8. Eki was doko desu ka= Where is the train station?
9. Bai Bai- Bye Bye
10. Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu= Nice to meet you
P.S. Thank you to everyone for your well wishes. As you can see we are safe and enjoying our trip to the fullest.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Hey everyone!!!! So we have finally been able to get to a computer with internet. Unfortunately, we cannot upload our photos from here but we will try to find a computer tomorrow that will do that to keep you all updated. Well, where do we even begin. Our more than 24 hours of traveling to Australia was exhausting. But the Qantas flight to Australia was amazing and the staff were wonderful. First time traveling on a 747 was a good experience. When we first got to Australia it was 6:45 in the morning and about 4:30 pm back home and a day behind. We could not get used to the time change and fell asleep at 7pm Australia time. To add to that the hostel was a shocker. Really nice staff and great help but the room was literally just that ....a room. We were both shocked and completely unprepared. Wait till we post the photos. Along with that we had to share a bathroom with the entire top floor. Not too too bad but not our usual cup of tea either. Guess we haven't gotten accustomed to the backpacker life yet. The hubby was a little more taken back and we spent the rest of the day trying to find a hotel before heading to bed early. The next day we spent the whole day at the Australia Zoo. It was a long haul to get there but well worth the wait. This Zoo was just amazing. Nothing like back home in the US. It was a hands on Zoo and we were able to spend one on one time with the Kangaroos, Koalas, and lizards. We were also up close with the Elephants and tigers. Just an absolutely amazing time. We were both pinching ourselves thinking...."are we really here," "is this really happening?" Well.....the zoo was amazing but the haul home wasn't. Not only did we have to wait 2 hours in BFE (countryside/Beerwah Australia) for the train ride home but we also encountered prejudice against us Americans. It was actually quite funny. We first went to this hole in the wall hotel thinking "we can't spend two hours at this train station in the middle of nowhere." Well, the bar at the hotel had people looking at us foreigners like "get the hell out of here." One guy actually got in the hubby's face and asked him what we wanted here. He simply said "were just looking for a bite to eat." The guy responded with "go to that lady (pointing to the bar) " and then responded with "maybe she'll help you maybe she won't. So we quickly left there. We then went to a little hole in the wall called Neddy's. Well thank God we were greeted nicely there. With a little bit of Australian fried chicken we sat down and took in the countryside, still leaving us an hour for the train ride. We waited patiently with the spiders making their webs. Then, on the train ride we encountered this guy who was making a huge fuss yelling and telling his wife that Americans, Indians, and the Australian southerners need to go home and long long story short we got home 4 hours after we left the zoo. This brings us to the current day March 29th (back home its still the 28th). Today we took in the sights of Brisbane, catching a ride on the tourist attraction (Ferris wheel), took a brief walk through the botanical gardens and walked an hour back to our hotel pleasantly surprised with the difference a hotel brings from our lovely hostel we stood in for the two nights prior. To shorten this up a bit because we are trying to just update everything here is a list of some important things to note:
1. In Brisbane most of the cafes and stores close @ 5pm during the weekdays and are closed on the weekends. We learned this out the hard way trying to find food after 5 the first night we got here and just wounded up eating subway which brings us to #2.
2. Subway does not offer chips here, just the sandwich and the sandwich tastes different from back home. (At least the Subway we went to on Queens st in Brisbane)
3. We are trying to get used to the currency. Our dollar is more than the AUD and it feels like we are paying too much when in actuality we are paying less.
4. We are trying to get used to people driving on the opposite side of the road..we almost were ran over yesterday learning this.
5. We are really just trying to take everything in as we enjoy this adventure together.
One last thing before we have to go....The wifey (me) was watching Revolutionary road on the 14 hour flight to Brisbane and there was a quote worth telling the world because it relates to our journey as we travel the world. It went along the lines of this "It takes backbone to live the life you want!" And it just stuck a cord with me as I sat there thinking..YES it does and here we are doing what we sought out to do. Travel the world..leaving behind the mundane life that WE were getting so bored of at home. It made me cry! Watch the movie it is truly amazing.
------This is the man here, the hubby, and I just wanted to shout out to everyone reading this. It is definitely a great experience to this point, and I can only imagine what is to come. Anyways talk to you all soon and be easy!
Till next time........
1. In Brisbane most of the cafes and stores close @ 5pm during the weekdays and are closed on the weekends. We learned this out the hard way trying to find food after 5 the first night we got here and just wounded up eating subway which brings us to #2.
2. Subway does not offer chips here, just the sandwich and the sandwich tastes different from back home. (At least the Subway we went to on Queens st in Brisbane)
3. We are trying to get used to the currency. Our dollar is more than the AUD and it feels like we are paying too much when in actuality we are paying less.
4. We are trying to get used to people driving on the opposite side of the road..we almost were ran over yesterday learning this.
5. We are really just trying to take everything in as we enjoy this adventure together.
One last thing before we have to go....The wifey (me) was watching Revolutionary road on the 14 hour flight to Brisbane and there was a quote worth telling the world because it relates to our journey as we travel the world. It went along the lines of this "It takes backbone to live the life you want!" And it just stuck a cord with me as I sat there thinking..YES it does and here we are doing what we sought out to do. Travel the world..leaving behind the mundane life that WE were getting so bored of at home. It made me cry! Watch the movie it is truly amazing.
------This is the man here, the hubby, and I just wanted to shout out to everyone reading this. It is definitely a great experience to this point, and I can only imagine what is to come. Anyways talk to you all soon and be easy!
Till next time........
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